Saint Francis Xavier, born
Francisco de Jaso y Azpilicueta (7 April 1506,
Javier, Navarre
– 3 December
1552, Shangchuan
Island
, China
) was a
Spanish
pioneering Roman
Catholic missionary of Navarrese origin and co-founder of the
Society of Jesus.
He was a
student of Saint Ignatius
Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who dedicated themselves to the service of
God at Montmarte
in 1534. He led an extensive mission into
Asia, mainly in the Asian
Portuguese
empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and
upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India (in Goa), but also
ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Malaccas, and other areas which
had thus far not been colonized. In these areas, being a pioneer
and struggling to learn the local language of the indigenous people
in the face of opposition, he had less success.
Early life
The castle of the Xavier family was
later acquired by the Company of Jesus and reconstructed.
Francis
Xavier was born in the family castle of Xavier
(Xabier, in Basque)
in the Kingdom of Navarre on 7
April 1506 according to a family register. He was born to an
aristocratic family of Navarre, the youngest son of Juan de Jaso,
privy counselor to King John III of Navarre (
Jean d'Albret), and Doña Maria de Azpilcueta y
Xavier, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families. He was thus
related to the great theologian and philosopher
Martín de Azpilcueta. Following
the
Basque surname
custom of the time, he was named after his mother ; his name is
accurately written Francisco de Xavier (Latin Xaverius) rather than
Francisco Xavier, as Xavier is originally a place name.
Basque euskara.euskadi.net François Xavier
naquit au sud de cette démarcation à la limite de l'Aragon (1506)
et vécut dans son château natal de Xavier jusqu'à l'âge de 19 ans.
C'est là qu'il apprit ses deux premières langues: d'une part le
basque dans sa famille bascophone (de la région du Baztan et de la
Basse-Navarre) et avec ceux qui arrivaient des provinces voisines
encore bascophones au château et d'autre part la langue romane de
son entourage géographique immédiat. Ce qui explique pourquoi le
missionraire navarrais désignera l'euskara comme "sa langue
naturelle bizcayenne" (1544), terme très étendu à cette
époque. and Romance were his two
mother tongues.
Joint
Castilian and Aragonese
troops commanded by Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo,
second Duke of Alba conquered the
Kingdom of Navarre in 1512. After a failed French-Navarrese
attempt to reconquer the kingdom in (1516), in which Saint
Francis's brothers had taken part, the outer wall, the gates and
two towers of the family castle were demolished, the moat was
filled, the height of the keep was reduced in half, and land was
confiscated. Only the family residence inside the castle was left.
Francis's father died when he was only nine years old in
1515.
Xavier met
Ignatius of Loyola while they
were both students at the University of Paris
. While at the time he seemed destined for
academic success in the line of his noble family, Ignatius
reputedly turned his sights to a life a Catholic missionary
service. He later joined Ignatius, together with 5 others, in
founding the
Society of Jesus.
On the 15
August 1534, in a small chapel in Montmartre
, they made a vow of poverty, chastity and
obedience, and also vowed to convert the Muslims in the Middle East
(or, failing this, carry out the wishes of the Pope).
Francis Xavier went, with the rest of the members of the newly
papal-approved Jesuit order, to Venice, Italy, to be ordained to
the priesthood, which took place on 24 June 1537. Towards the end
of October, the seven companions reached Bologna, where they worked
in the local hospital. After that, he served for a brief period in
Rome as Ignatius' secretary.
Missionary work
Francis Xavier devoted much of his life to missions in foreign
countries. As
King John III of
Portugal desired Jesuit missionaries for the Portuguese
East Indies, he was ordered there in
1540 by Ignatius on behalf of the King. The King believed that
Christian values were eroding among the colonists of Goa.
He left
Lisbon
on 7 April 1541 together with two other Jesuits and
the new viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa, on board the
Santiago. From August of that year until March 1542, he
remained in Mozambique
then reached Goa
, the capital
of the then Portuguese
Indian colonies on 6 May
1542. His official role there was
Apostolic Nuncio and he spent the following
three years operating out of Goa.
On 20
September 1543 he left for his first missionary activity among the
Paravas, pearl-fishers along the east coast
of southern India, North of Cape Comorin
(or ). He lived in a sea cave in Manapad
, intensively catechizing Paravar children for three
months in 1544. He then focused on converting the king of
Travancore to Christianity and also
visited Ceylon
(Sri Lanka
). Dissatisfied with the results of his
activity, he set his sights eastward in 1545 and planned a
missionary journey to Makassar
on the island of Celebes
(today's Indonesia
).
As the first Jesuit in India, Francis had difficult procuring
success for his missionary trips. Francis had a lack of respect for
Hinduism . Instead of approaching Christianity through the
traditions of the local religion and creating a nativised church as
the Jesuit Matteo Ricci did in China, he was eager for change . His
successors such as de Nobili, Ricci, and Beschi attempted to
convert the noblemen first as a means to influence more people,
while Francis had initially interacted most with the lower classes
(later though, in Japan, Francis changed tact by paying tribute to
the Emperor and seeking an audience with him). However Francis'
mission was primarily, as ordered by King John III, to restore
Christianity among the Portuguese settlers. Many of the Portuguese
sailors had had illegitimate relationships with Indian women;
Francis struggled to restore moral relations, and catechized many
illegitimate children.
After
arriving in Portuguese Malacca
in October of that year and waiting three months in
vain for a ship to Macassar, he gave up the goal of his voyage and
left Malacca on 1 January 1546 for Ambon Island
where he stayed until mid-June. He then visited other
Maluku
Islands
including Ternate
and More. Shortly after
Easter 1546, he returned to
Ambon Island and
later Malacca. During this time, frustrated by the elites in Goa,
Francis wrote to King John III of Portugal for an
Inquisition to be installed in Goa. However he
never saw the Inquisition; it began eight years after his death.
The Inquisition has since been criticized as being repressive
.
Voyages of St. Francis Xavier
Francis
Xavier's work initiated permanent change in eastern Indonesia, and he was known as the 'Apostle of the Indies'
where in 1546-1547 he worked in the Maluku
Islands
among the people of Ambon, Ternate, and Morotai
(or Moro), and laid the foundations for a permanent
mission.After he left the Maluku Islands, others carried on
his work and by the 1560s there were 10,000 Catholics in the area,
mostly on Ambon. By the 1590s there were 50,000 to 60,000.
In
Malacca in December 1547 Francis Xavier met a Japanese
from Kagoshima named
Anjiro. Anjiro had heard from Francis
in 1545 and had travelled from Kagoshima to Malacca with the
purpose of meeting with him. Having been charged with murder,
Anjiro had fled Japan. He told Francis extensively about his former
life and the customs and culture of his beloved homeland. Anjiro
helped Xavier as a mediator and translator for the mission to Japan
that now seemed much more possible. "I asked [Anjiro] whether the
Japanese would become Christians if I went with him to this
country, and he replied that they would not do so immediately, but
would first ask me many questions and see what I knew. Above all,
they would want to see whether my life corresponded with my
teaching."
He returned to India in January 1548. The next 15 months were
occupied with various journeys and administrative measures in
India. Then, due to displeasure at what he considered un-Christian
life and manners on the part of the Portuguese which impeded
missionary work, he travelled from the South into East Asia.
He left
Goa on 15 April 1549, stopped at Malacca and visited Canton
. He was accompanied by Anjiro, two other
Japanese men, the father
Cosme de
Torrès and Brother João Fernandes. He had taken with him
presents for the "
King of Japan"
since he was intending to introduce himself as the
Apostolic Nuncio.
Francis
Xavier reached Japan on 27 July 1549 with Anjiro and three other
Jesuits, but it was not until 15 August that he went ashore at
Kagoshima, the principal port of the
province of Satsuma on the island
of Kyūshū
. As a representative of the Portunguese
king, he was received in a friendly manner. hosted by Anjiro's
family until October 1550. From October to December 1550, he
resided in
Yamaguchi. Shortly
before Christmas, he left for
Kyoto but failed
to meet with the Emperor. He returned to Yamaguchi in March 1551
where he was permitted to preach by the
daimyo of the province. However, lacking fluency in
the
Japanese language, he had to
limit himself to reading aloud the translation of a
catechism.
Francis was the first Jesuit to go to Japan as a missionary. He
brought with him paintings of the Madonna and the Madonna and
Child. These paintings were used to help teach the Japanese about
Christianity. There was a huge language barrier as Japanese was
unlike other languages the missionaries had previously encountered.
For a long time Francis struggled to learn the language. Artwork
continued to play a role in Francis’s teachings in Asia.
For forty five years the Jesuits were the only missionaries in
Asia, but the Franciscans also began proselytizing in Asia as well.
Christian missionaries were later forced into exile, along with
their assistants. Some were able to stay behind, however
Christianity was then kept underground as to not be
persecuted.
The Japanese people were not easily converted; many of the people
were already Buddhist or Shinto. Francis tried to combat the
disposition of some of the Japanese that a God who had created
everything, including evil, could not be good. The concept of Hell
was also a struggle; the Japanese were bothered by the idea of
their ancestors living in Hell. Despite Francis’ different
religion, he felt that they were good people, much like Europeans,
and could be converted.
Xavier was welcomed by the
Shingon monks
since he used the word
Dainichi
for the Christian God; attempting to adapt the concept to local
traditions. As Xavier learned more about the religious nuances of
the word, he changed to
Deusu from the Latin and
Portuguese
Deus. The monks later realized that Xavier was
preaching a rival religion and grew more aggressive towards his
attempts at conversion.
With the passage of time, his sojourn in Japan could be considered
somewhat fruitful as attested by congregations established in
Hirado, Yamaguchi and
Bungo. Xavier worked for more than two years
in Japan and saw his successor-Jesuits established. He then decided
to return to India.
During his trip, a tempest forced him to
stop on an island near Guangzhou, China where he saw
the rich merchant Diego Pereira, an old
friend from Cochin
, who showed
him a letter from Portuguese being held prisoners in Guangzhou
asking for a Portuguese ambassador to talk to the Chinese Emperor
in their favor. Later during the voyage, he stopped at
Malacca on 27 December 1551 and was back in Goa by January
1552.
On 17 April he set sail with Diego Pereira, leaving Goa on board
the
Santa Cruz for China. He introduced himself as
Apostolic Nuncio and Pereira as ambassador of the King of Portugal.
Shortly thereafter, he realized that he had forgotten his
testimonial letters as an Apostolic Nuncio. Back in Malacca, he was
confronted by the
capitão who now had total control over
the harbor. The
capitão refused to recognize his title of
Nuncio, asked Pereira to resign from his title of ambassador, named
a new crew for the ship and demanded the gifts for the Chinese
Emperor be left in Malacca.
In late
August 1552 the Santa Cruz reached the Chinese island of
Shangchuan
, 14 km away from the southern coast of
mainland China, near Taishan
, Guangdong
, 200 km south-west of what later became
Hong
Kong
. At this time, he was only accompanied by a
Jesuit student, , a Chinese man called António and a
Malabar servant called Christopher. Around
mid-November he sent a letter saying that a man had agreed to take
him to the mainland in exchange for a large sum of money. Having
sent back Álvaro Ferreira, he remained alone with António.
He died
at Sancian from a fever on the 3 December 1552 while he was
waiting for a boat that would agree to take him to mainland
China.
He was first buried on a beach of Shangchuan Island. In 2006, on
the 500th anniversary of his birth, the Xavier Tomb Monument and
Chapel on the island, in ruins after years of neglect under
communist rule in China was restored with the support from the
alumni of
Wah Yan College, a Jesuit
high school in Hong Kong.
His incorrupt body was taken from the island in
February 1553 and was temporarily buried in St. Paul's church in
Malacca on 22 March 1553. An open grave in the
church now marks the place of Xavier's burial. Pereira came back
from Goa, removed the corpse shortly after 15 April 1553, and moved
it to his house. On 11 December 1553 Xavier's body was shipped to
Goa.
The
body is now in the Basilica of Bom Jesus
in Goa, where it was placed in a glass container
encased in a silver casket on 2 December 1637.
The right
forearm, which Xavier used to
bless and baptize his converts, was detached by Pr. Gen.
Claudio Acquaviva in 1614.
It has been displayed
since in a silver reliquary at the main Jesuit church in Rome,
Il
Gesù
.
Another
of Xavier's arm bones was brought to Macau
where it
was kept in a silver reliquary.
The relic
was destined for Japan but
religious persecution there persuaded the church to keep it in
Macau's Cathedral of
St. Paul
. It was subsequently moved to St. Joseph′s
and in 1978 to the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier on Coloane Island
. More recently the relic was moved to St.
Joseph's Seminary and the Sacred Art Museum.
Controversy
Francis Xavier has been criticized by some for his role in
initiating the
Goa Inquisition, and
for his
iconoclasm. Francis requested the
Inquisition, but he never saw it happen; it commenced eight years
after his death. Yet, as noted by Voltaire, the Inquisition was
often cruel, forceful and insensitive to the local culture.
According to Rao, "St. Francis Xavier made it a point not only to
convert the people but also destroy the idols and ancient places of
worship."
In Japan, Francis publicly denounced, among other things, idolatry
and practicing homosexuality. Some Japanese whom he had converted
took part in destroying traditional temples and shrines.One
Tokugawan law stated that "Christians were bringing disorder to
Japanese society and that their followers 'contravene governmental
regulations, traduce Shinto, calumniate the True Law, destroy
regulations, and corrupt goodness'".
Legacy
St. Francis Xavier is noteworthy for his
missionary work, both as organizer and as
pioneer. By his compromises in India with the
Christians of St. Thomas, he
developed the Jesuit missionary methods along lines that
subsequently became a successful blueprint for his order to follow.
His efforts left a significant impression upon the missionary
history of India and, as one of the first Jesuit missionaries to
the
East Indies, his work is of
fundamental significance to Christians in the propagation of
Christianity in China and Japan. India still has numerous Jesuit
missions, and many more schools. There has been less of an impact
in Japan.
Pope Benedict XVI said of both
Ignatius of Loyola and Francis
Xavier: "not only their history which was interwoven for many years
from Paris and Rome, but a unique desire — a unique passion, it
could be said — moved and sustained them through different human
events: the passion to give to God-Trinity a glory always greater
and to work for the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ to the
peoples who had been ignored."As the foremost saint from Navarre
and one of the main Jesuit saints, he is much venerated in Spain
and the Hispanic countries where
Francisco Javier or
Javier are common male
given
names.
The alternative spelling Xavier is
also popular in Portugal, Brazil, France, Belgium, and southern Italy
.
In
India
, the spelling Xavier is almost always
used, and the name is reasonably quite common among Christians, especially in the southern states of
Tamil
Nadu
, Kerala
, Karnataka
and more common in Goa
.
In
Goa, Xavier besides being a surname, is also
seen as the suffix in the names Francisco Xavier,
António Xavier, João Xavier, Caetano
Xavier, Domingos Xavier et cetera, which were very
common till quiet recently. In Austria
and Bavaria
the name is spelled as Xaver (pronounced
Ksaber and often used in addition to Francis as
Franz-Xaver. In English speaking countries,
"Xavier" is one of the few names starting with X, and until
recently was likely to follow "Francis"; in the last decade,
however, "Xavier" by itself has become more popular than "Francis",
and is now one of the 100 most common male baby names in the
US.
Many churches all over the world have been named in honor of
Xavier, often founded by Jesuits.
One notable church is the Basilica of
St. Francis Xavier
in Dyersville, Iowa
. The is an annual pilgrimage from Pamplona
to Xavier instituted in the 1940s.
The
Novena of Grace is a popular
devotion to Francis Xavier, typically prayed on the nine days
before 3 December.
One of his relatives is
John Sevier. The
Sevier family name originated from the name Xavier.
Beatification and Canonization
Francis Xavier is a Catholic
saint. He was
beatified by
Paul V on 25 October 1619 and
was
canonized by
Gregory XV on 12 March 1622 at the same time as
Ignatius Loyola. He is considered to
be a patron saint of Roman Catholic missionaries in foreign lands.
His
feast day is 3 December.
Hymns
There are many hymns written in his honour.
Sam Fransisku
Xaviera is a Konkani hymn, which is sung as the recessional
hymn at most of the novenas held at Bom Jesus
Basilica
, Velha
Goa
, the place where the relics of St. Francis Xavier
are kept.
Educational Institutions
Numerous schools named
Xavier,
St. Xavier or
St. Francis Xavier, most
of them founded by the Jesuits, can be found in many parts of the
world. Several are located in places where the saint
proselytized:
- St. Francis Xavier University
in Antigonish, Nova Scotia
, Canada
- founded
in 1853 by the second bishop of Arichat and first bishop of
Antigonish, Dr. Colin F. MacKinnon. It has been ranked by
Maclean's Magazine as the best
undergraduate school in the nation for five consecutive years, and
now the best undergraduate school ranked by students.
- St. Xavier's
College - founded in 1963, is located in Mapusa, in the
Northern district of the Indian state of Goa where the eponymous
saint's relic lies.
- Xavier
University (commonly known as Ateneo de Cagayan) -
founded by the Jesuits located in Cagayan de
Oro City, Philippines; it is the largest school in Northern
Mindanao and it also ranked 12th in the Philippines' Top 20 Schools
list.
- Xavier School
- in Manila
, is a
preparatory school for
males.
Schools
- Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, MA, USA
- St Francis
Xavier College in Florey, Canberra, Australia
- Saint
Xavier High School in Cincinnati and Xavier
High School
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
have prominent statues of St. Francis Xavier on
their campuses.
- Xavier High
School
- a male only Jesuit university-preparatory high
school located at 30 West 16th Street, in the Chelsea neighborhood
of Manhattan, New York City.
- in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
- St. Francis Xavier College in Beaconsfield, Victoria,
Australia
- St. Francis Xavier's College in Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon, Hong
Kong
- St. Francis Xavier High Shool in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Xavier College, formerly known as St Francis Xavier College - a
Jesuit school in Melbourne, Australia also named after Francis
Xavier
- Francis Xavier College, in Hamilton,
New South
Wales
, Australia.
- Xavier College Llandilo, founded in 1999, is situated in
western Sydney.
- Xaverian College
in Manchester
, England - one of the most renowned and successful
colleges in the country.
- Saint Francis Xavier's college in a school that specialises in
ICT.
- Saint Francis Xavier primary school in Woolgoolga, NSW,
Australia
- Saint Francis Xavier primary school in Vancouver, BC,
Canada
- Saint
Francis Xavier Parochial School,
Nasugbu
, Batangas
- St.Xavier high school in Eluru (West Godavari Dist of Andhra
Pradesh State in India)
- St. Xavier's Institution in Penang, Malaysia
- St. Francis Institution
in Malacca, Malaysia
- St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary, Wa, Ghana (West
Africa)
- St. Xavier's High School,Bathinda,Punjab(India)
- St. Xavier's High School, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
- St. Francis Xavier's Girl's High School, Dhaka, Bangladesh-
founded in 1912 by the Our Lady of the Missions congregation
- St. Francis Xavier Catholic School, Metairie, Louisiana
USA
- St. Francis Xavier High School, Sumter, South Carolina,
USA
Fictional
See also
Footnotes
- Attwater (1965), p. 141.
- Navarro-Aragonese, called Romance at this time was also a
language spoken in the surrounding area. Romance languages are the
result of the changes suffered by spoken Latin through the
centuries. Hispanic Romance languages were born in the North of the
Peninsula (Galician, Leonese, Castilian, Navarro-Aragonese,
Catalonian).
- Sagredo Garde, Iñaki. "Navarra. Castillos que defendieron el
Reino". Pamiela, 2006. ISBN 84-7681-477-1
- Duignan, Peter. "Early Jesuit Missionaries: A Suggestion for
Further Study." American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol.
60, No. 4 (August 1958). pp. 725-732. Blackwell Publishing on
behalf of the American Anthropological Association. Accessed 30
Novbeber 2008 .
- Vlam, Grace A. H. The Portrait of Francis Xavier in Kobe.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 42 Bd., H. 1, pp. 48-60 Berlin:
Deutscher Kunstverlag GmbH Munchen, 1979. 30 Nov. 2008 jstor
- Ellis, Robert Richmond. “The Best Thus Far Discovered”: The
Japanese in the Letters of St. Francisco Xavier. Hispanic Review,
Vol. 71 No. 2 (Spring 2003), pp. 155-169 University of Pennsylvania
Press. 30 Nov. 2008 jstor
- Xavier, Francis. The Letters and Instructions of Francis
Xavier. Translated by M. Joseph Costellos, S.J. St Louis: The
Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1992
- Cappella di san Francesco Saverio, at the
official website of Il
Gesù.
- Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, at the official
website of the Macau Government Tourist Office.
- Address of Benedict XVI to the Jesuits, 22 April
2006.
- The most frequent names, simple and exact for the
national total and exact for the province of residence,
Instituto
Nacional de Estadística . Excel spreadsheet format. Javier is
the 10th most popular complete name for males, Francisco Javier,
the 18th. Javier is the 8th most frequent name for males, either
alone or in composition.
- http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
- Attwater (1965), pp. 141-142.
- Cameron, James: "For the People", page 13. McGill-Queen's
Press. 1996.
- http://www.stfx.ca/macleans/
- http://www.mystfx.ca/media/2009-02.htm
- http://www.sfxc.edu.hk/
- http://www.ottawacatholicschools.ca/fxh/
- http://www.stfrancisxavier.com
References
- This article incorporates material from the Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia of Religion
- Attwater, Donald. (1965) A Dictionary of Saints.
Penguin Books, Middlesex, England. Reprint: 1981.
- Jou, Albert. (1984) The Saint on a Mission. Anand
Press, Anand, India.
External links
- Basilica of
Bom Jesus, Old Goa The Shrine of Saint Francis Xavier
- Saint Francis
Xavier University Antigonish, Nova Scotia
- The Life of St. Francis Xavier
- The life and letters of St. Francis Xavier Francis
Xavier, Saint, 1506-1552 Coleridge, Henry James, 1822-1893 London :
Burns and Oates, (1872)
- Xavier's World website of Navarre Department
of Education celebrating 500th anniversary of their patron saint's
birth
- A
critical view
- St. Francis Xavier - Pictorial Biography
- Saint François Xavier
- St. Francis of the Millennium
- The Goa
Jesuit Province of the Society of Jesus: The Jesuits in
Goa
- The Feast of St Francis Xavier in Goa
- Picture of Shangchuan island. The chapel marks the location of his death
- Another picture of the church on Shangchuan
island
- Old map of Shangchuan island
- The Miracles of St Francis Xavier by John Hardon, SJ
- St Francis Xavier: History of His Incorrupt
Body
- Brief History of St Francis Xavier
- Saint Francis Xavier at Patron Saints Index
- St. Francis
Xavier Catholic Church in Parkersburg, WV
- Yomiuri Shimbun: St. Francis Xavier -- 90% name recognition amongst primary
school students in Japan, 2008.
.JPG/180px-Nasugbu_31_(New_Church_Altar).JPG)
is Jesuit and has the largest enrollment of
6,500.
- in New Orleans, has an enrollment of 3,200 in
2009, rising back towards its peak enrollment pre-Hurricane Katrina of 4,121 (2005).
It is the only college in the United States that is both Catholic
and historically Black; it is also the only college in the United
States founded by a saint (St. Katherine Drexel).
- one of the oldest higher educational centers in
that leading Midwestern metropolis.
in Palm Desert, California.
, a fictional establishment said (in the book) to be
the most prestigious school in British
India.
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